Slover was best known for playing the lead trumpeter in the Munchkins' band but also had roles as a townsman and soldier in the film, said John Fricke, author of "100 Years of Oz" and five other books on the movie and its star, Judy Garland.

Slover was born Karl Kosiczky in what is now the Czech Republic and was the only child in his family to be dwarf sized, according to the AP.

His father tried various witch doctor treatments to make him grow, and eventually sold him at age 9 to a traveling show in Europe, Fricke said.

Slover continued to perform into his late 20s, when he moved to the United States, changed his name and appeared in circuses as part of a vaudeville group known as the Singer Midgets. The group's 30 performers became the nucleus of the Munchkins.

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